Interview - Big Beng Sep 2002

We were supposed to have met in Prague's Reigrovy Sady, I with Freak Parade, which was always a cosmopolitan band, and can't be said to belong solely to Liberec anymore, but to the czech metropolis.

But it started raining, so I met the band, one Englishwoman,, one American, one Dutchman and one Czech, in Ultramarin. The Dutchman has a job as a cook there.

A week after the worst floods in 150 years, everyone was afraid of the water. Freak Parade, as well - why not say it? They practiced at drummer Barney's house (he's the czech in the group) in Dobrichovice, not far from Prague. It lies right on the banks of the Vltava River, and was entirely flooded. The floods took the practice room and on top of that Barney lost everything. So that the fear wasn't unfounded, bassist Mike Bowling, the American, lived before the flood in Prague's Karlin neighborhood, and was evacuated on 'D' day.Ov er the next few days he realized that his building had been condemned. It could be said that he may lose a lot, as well. He is staying now with Rebecca, the band's singer.

Rally of the Cosmopolitans

Even though this tiring sadness has been a long time on it's victims, the unpleasant situation is far from over. In Ultramrin it came out that the agreement to pay for the new disc with Indies records, the company who put out the first album, fell through. WHen that happened, they figured well, at least we'll have plenty of concerts. But in the thrird weekend of July came the news that their booking manager, Martin Fort, just barely survived a serious car accident and will be laid up for so long as to not be able to handle this tour.

So at the table there at Ultramarin things looked bad. Not that the globetrotters didn't laugh, and that they


weren't in a good mood, but coming through all that was a wary sadness.
But when someone wants, they can always find a silver lining on any dark cloud. Freak Parade hasn't existed for three years.We stopped seeing their name and the singer Rebecca became the frontman in the lineup of liberec's BMovie Heroes,. Now it's time to play again with Freak Parade. She doesn't see a problem with it.

"I was in the states two and half years, in Atlanta. I worked as a programmer there. But after the terrorist attacks lots of firms started going under. I returned. Because of music, because of work and because of the people here.," claimed Mike Bowling, who came to Czech in the beginning of the 90's to meet a friend. He was supposed to just visit, but ended up staying.

They started Freak Parade in the early 90's, and their guitar music led them to get a solid fanbase in the Czech rock scene.

Tomas Trubac, who doesn't play guitar anymore, but only sings, and robert Taschner, who has maybe three bands now, were people who we haven't talked to for a long time, and we realizeded that our musical cooperation was in the past. They both have their own projects now." said Bowling.

Drummer Barney (ex Sekce DB and Indiat Tat) was found through Hradec Kralov's Petr Vysohlid. Guitarist Paul Gebuis was happened upon by coincidence.

From Disk to Disk

In the end Freak Parade recorded the eight-song mini-album Future Shock on their own label. They say it has a bit of the czech spirit in it. Mike takes a drink from his coca cola and explains.

"The material on this disk we wrote and practiced here. It has a czech style, especially in the lyrics. A lot of people say it is an American style of music, and that's probably true as far as the music is concerned,


but the text has a czech feeling, at least that's what i feel."

Rebecca claims that since they all live here in the heart of Europe, its logical that their music will be influenced by it. Bowling further adds that the band as a whole decided what to play and what not to play. "Barney hated one, so we threw it out".

"The biggest difference between the first and second disks is the sound.", says Barney. "I wasn't playing in the band then, I only know it from listening to it. But I would say that the sound was weaker. The drums were muffled, the guitar was muffled, and the energy was lacking. This new one, I can play on the smallest little piece of crap jambox and it still sounds good."

According to Barney, the main reason for the difference was in the choice of Ondrej Jezeks Jamor Studio. He's known as one of the best sound engineers in the country. He's the Czech Steve Albini, "..but better" says Bowling.

"I'm proud of the first CD. I think that they were good songs, and we worked on them a long time. This second disk shows an evolution. We're almost ten years older and you can definitley tell. Ondrej helped us a lot. He hones in the smallest little mistakes.

Artists and Pleasure-seekers

"When I was in England I went to art school for five years. I wanted to be a painter, I was good at it and it interested me," says Rebecca of her non-musical artistic ventures. "When I came to Liberec Mike asked me if I wanted to sing. I did, and after nine years I know that it was the best thing that I could have done."

Now there's not much time for painting, because the music takes all her energy. She could have been successful, as is shown by a national award she won in a contest. She now paints when she can, and when she has time. But there's not much. "Has I stayed an artist, could i have been famous? Maybe.


Who knows? But I left, because I wanted to try something different."

Mike is writing a book. "Everyday, I think of something new that I could put in it. I'm not rushing it." He lost access (because of the flood) to his laptop, on which he writes. "It will probably be about 160 pages, but I don't know if it will be any good. Its sort of a comedy. For the moment only a few friends have read it. You know, in music I'm thick skinned, but in Literature I'm not so sure of myself."

Drummer Barney has tabled his other projects (barney makes music for FAMU film students) and is right now concentrating on Freak Parade.

Back to website